A Lenten Meditation: Deuteronomy 26

You shall rejoice in every good thing the Lord has given you

In our Old Testament text for this week, we hear not only a promise, but a command.  The people of Israel are commanded to give thanks, and bring their first fruits to God for the wonderful deliverance He has provided for them.  A people of slaves, now free and planted in their own land where prosperity flows abundantly, are commanded to give thanks for their blessings, to the God who has delivered them from the hands of their enemies.

As we ponder this divine message through Moses to the people of God, it is important to distinguish between God’s command, and God’s gift.  His Gift is the deliverance He provides, entirely apart from the work or worthiness of the Hebrews—none of those people deserved to be delivered from the hand of Pharaoh, nor to inherit a land flowing with milk and honey.  The Gift of God came to them out of sheer grace, born from the love of God toward His people.

The Command to rejoice in the blessing, is a reflection of the righteousness of the God who delivers the people.  It is only right to give thanks and praise to our saving Lord, who has done all things well for our deliverance.  Even the young child knows that it is wrong to receive a gift and not thank the giver, since this is written into the Natural Law of the cosmos—a gift of grace presumes the righteousness of the giver, and the indebtedness of the receiver.  It is good, right, and salutary, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to the Lord our God, for the great gift of deliverance He has accomplished for us.

Knowing the difference between the Gift and the Command, we can remember them without confusion, both for the ancient Hebrews, and for the whole Christian Church on earth to this day.  We who have received freely from the Lord the riches of His grace, in the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation Jesus Christ has won for the world, have received this Gift without any merit or worthiness on our parts.  We have received so great a salvation, entirely based upon the work and merit of Jesus our Savior, and His divine love for us that moved Him to deliver us from sin, death, hell, and the enslaving power of the devil.  This divine Gift we call the Gospel—the Good News of our Salvation.  Such grace can always and only be received and clung to by faith, which believes the promise of God, and trusts in His Word of life and deliverance.

The Command, however, we must also receive.  And under the weight of that divine Command, we find ourselves wanting.  Who among us has thanked God enough for the great salvation He has accomplished for us in His Only Begotten Son?  Who among us has properly given our first fruits back to God, returning our whole life back to Him as a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual duty.  Who among us, rather, has grown slack in our remembrance of our great salvation, taken for granted the Blood of Christ poured out for the sins of the world—for our own sins, which are our own most grievous fault?   Before the righteous demands of the Law of God, we find ourselves falling short—poor miserable sinners, who neither deserve the Gift we have already been given, nor deserve to retain it for even another breath.  The Law condemns us for what we are:  ungrateful, selfish, prideful, and worthy of all temporal and eternal punishment.

So what are we to do?  How are we to respond in the face of so great a Gift, and so terrible a Command?  How does the Christian, saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, live before the witness of God’s divine Law and Gospel?  St. Paul reminds us of the ancient, Old Testament axiom:  The Just Shall Live By Faith—a faith given to us as a divine gift, itself.

Faith hears the Word of God’s promised grace, believes and lives by it.  Faith hears the terrifying Word of God’s Law, and falls down in repentance before it.  Faith believes and clings to God Himself, who in the Person of His Son, has reconciled not only the world to Himself, but even the Word of God’s Gospel and Law in the unity of His own divine Person.  In Christ, the Law is satisfied, by His suffering and death.  In Christ, the Gospel is sure, by His resurrection from the dead.  Faith clings to Jesus in trust and repentance, knowing that our God loves us, now and for eternity.  Faith recognizes our sinful state, and knows our need for a Savior.  Faith hears the gracious promise of our Savior, and clings to Him as our eternal inheritance.  Faith believes that what we deserve from the Law has been poured out upon Christ, even as Faith receives the blessed gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation that flow freely from Christ to us.

Here the people of God stand, in a Faith which transcends all time and space—a Faith which at once places us at the foot of His Cross, the door of the Empty Tomb, and the gates of Heaven.  Here we give thanks to God for the gifts of Salvation in Jesus Christ, even as we repent of our weak and tepid thanksgiving.  And the Savior who has delivered us from the hands of our enemy the devil, shall continue to deliver us by His grace, through faith, forevermore.  Amen.

Meditations on Luke 9: Christ revealed in glory

As we come to the end of the season of Epiphany, it should be no surprise that the greatest manifestation of Christ would be celebrated with The Transfiguration. In Luke’s 9th chapter, we find one of the most peculiar events in all of Holy Scripture, and in the aftermath, we find the disciples appropriately perplexed.

Jesus takes just a few of His disciples with Him up the mountain, and while they are up there, Jesus is transformed into a vision of brilliance and glory. Together with Him are the greatest figures of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah (the iconic Lawgiver and Prophet,) and they are discussing with Jesus the path that lay ahead in Jerusalem. In this moment of heaven touching earth, the Eternally Begotten Son of God, conferred with two men He had sent forth in generations long past, about what He was about to accomplish for the salvation of all mankind… including them. For everyone who was going to be saved, from Adam and Eve, to the last person born on earth, their hope of salvation from sin, death, and the devil, was about to make His path to Calvary.

Naturally, the disciples were dumbstruck. Peter, as perhaps the only one who could find the presence of mind to speak at all, thought it would be pious to build three shrines—one for each of them. However, God will not abide this kind of thinking, and immediately clouds from view Moses and Elijah, leaving only Jesus there with them—and the voice from the Father speaks down from heaven: “This is my Beloved Son: hear Him!”

It is tempting for we poor, sinful creatures, to desire a glimpse of heaven. We want to know what’s going on up there, and what God has in store for us. Unfortunately, as this text makes clear, like so many places in Scripture, when sinful people peer into the glories of heaven, we become blithering idiots and fall all over ourselves. We don’t know how to deal with such beauty, holiness and glory—not even the lesser glory of the occupants of heaven, let alone the God of all Creation. When we try to peek into heaven, the sight of God’s glory unhinges our sinful minds, and leaves us wondering what just happened… and often, we want to head off and do something stupid, like worship the angels or the saints, whom God has already made holy through His Son. When we see God’s glory, we are undone, because we are people of unclean lips, in a nation of unclean lips. We are not holy, and cannot abide the glory of God.

And this is why we are always pointed back to Jesus Christ, our Savior. He is indeed fully God, but He cloaks His glory and righteousness in our own human flesh. Jesus, true God and true Man, is revealed to us as the Beloved Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, who is Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is through Him that we gain access to that glorious heaven, and liberation from our sins which lead to death. It is Him we hear, as He shows us in His very Person, just how much God loves this world, and all of us in it. It is Jesus who takes the path to the Cross, so that He may die in our place, and give to all who will repent and believe, His own life to live forever—to glorify us, in His unapproachable glory. The eternal glory of the Lord God Almighty is brought low to us, that we may hear Him, believe, and live. Here, in our Lord Jesus Christ, is life everlasting. Amen.